Electronics

Recently, CINNO Research predicts that in 2021, total global panel sales are expected to exceed 150 billion U.S. dollars (955.6 billion yuan), reaching a record-breaking total display panel industry revenue, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 25%. Among them, the annual sales of panel manufacturers in China in 2021 will reach about 60 billion U.S. dollars (382.2 billion yuan), accounting for about 40% of the total revenue of the world's major panel companies. Chinese panel makers represented by BOE performed well.

High revenue in the whole industry, Chinese manufacturers are second to none

The reason why the global panel industry can achieve rapid growth in 2021, Dong Min, deputy secretary general of the China Electronics Video Association, believes that it is mainly due to two reasons: on the one hand, the "home economy" after the outbreak continues to generate a large number of panel demand . Since the second half of 2020, the market demand for IT display panels has picked up rapidly. The demand for large TV screens has also risen due to people’s extended stay at home, and the average size of global panel shipments has steadily increased. On the other hand, the shortage of upstream materials has exacerbated the gap between supply and demand, further stimulating the market's willingness to purchase, and pushing up panel prices. Since last year, the supply of upstream materials such as driver ICs, glass substrates, polarizers and other materials has been tight, which has caused a wave of price increases for main-size panels due to rising costs, with an increase of about 100%-150%. "At present, the unit price of the panel has been determined to run at a high level, and it will continue for some time. With the imbalance of supply and demand, the display industry revenue will continue to increase." He said.

Today, the impact of the epidemic is still continuing. With the supply and demand of upstream raw materials in short supply and continued strong downstream demand, in the first quarter of 2021, the revenue of major global panel companies will increase significantly. Among them, Chinese panel manufacturers represented by BOE have performed even brighter. eye.

According to the revenue data of various panel makers, China’s BOE, South Korea’s Samsung Display (SDC), and South Korea’s LGD display the top three in the world in terms of revenue, and Taiwan’s AUO (AUO) and China The revenue of TCL Huaxing, Shenzhen Tianma, Rainbow Shares, Visionox and other companies also achieved substantial profits. At present, the total revenue of the top ten panel companies accounts for more than 90% of the global panel factory revenue.

The leading domestic panel companies BOE and TCL Huaxing will not only perform well in revenue in 2020, but also rank among the best in global panel companies in terms of operating profit. Among them, the development of China's panel leader BOE has widened the gap with the original global panel duo SDC and LGD, leading the way with a revenue of 10 billion yuan and a profit of 2 billion yuan. In the display panel industry, which is full of international competition, it has completely secured the world's number one position.

In addition, although TCL Huaxing’s 2020 revenue is 17.4 billion yuan, its profit is as high as 2.4 billion yuan. Compared with other manufacturers, its operating efficiency is leading in the industry. The profit margin is equally proud and there is Rainbow Shares, which only used less than 4 billion in revenue to create an astonishing profit of 1.111 billion. By focusing on small and medium-sized panels, Tianma is now the third largest panel supplier in China. In 2020, it will achieve an operating profit of approximately 8.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59%.

CINNO Research predicts that the annual sales of panel makers in mainland China will reach about 60 billion U.S. dollars (382.2 billion yuan) in 2021, accounting for about 40% of the total revenue of major global panel companies, and the market share will increase by 8 compared to 2020. percentage point. Combined with the revenue forecast data for 2021, it can be seen that from 2016 to 2021, the overall output value of panels in mainland China will increase year by year, with a compound annual revenue growth rate of 36%, which has truly achieved rapid development.

The pattern of the global display panel market will change

While achieving high revenue growth, global panel production capacity is also undergoing tremendous changes.

In the field of LCD panels, global LCD panel production capacity is continuing to be concentrated in China, and China's dominant position has become more stable. DIGITIMES predicts that by 2025, my country will occupy 71.6% of the global LCD panel production capacity, Taiwan's share will slowly decline to 22.6%, while South Korea and Japan will rapidly shrink to less than 10%.

According to Qunzhi Consulting’s forecast, global panel production capacity will show the following trends from 2020: First, in the next three years, there will still be new high-generation panel production lines in mainland China that will continue to be mass-produced, production capacity continues to increase, and global LCD TV panel production area is high. Gathering to manufacturers in mainland China; second, the Korean factory will speed up the shutdown of large-size LCD panel production capacity, and is expected to close all its LCD TV panel production capacity in South Korea in the next two years, and its production lines in mainland China will also be dispersed to others application. According to the calculations of Qunzhi Consulting, if the Korean factory continues to withdraw, it is expected that from 2021, LGD and SDC's LCD TV panel production capacity will be reduced to less than 10% of the world; third, China's Taiwanese panel factory investment is conservative and will be profitable. The production capacity of low-performance LCD TV panels will continue to shrink, and the market share will gradually decline. It is estimated that by 2023, BOE and China Star Optoelectronics will account for 23% and 18% of the LCD panel production capacity, respectively, regardless of production line mergers and acquisitions. If the CEC Panda and Samsung Suzhou plants are included, the share of BOE and China Star Optoelectronics will exceed 50 %.

In the field of OLED panels, the development of China's OLED panels is also approaching South Korea. Omdia's latest research report pointed out that as an absolute leader in the field of OLED panels, Samsung Display’s market share will fall from 80% in 2020 to 77% in 2021, and it may further drop to 65% in 2022. The market share of OLED panels in China is expected to rise from 15% in 2021 to 27% in 2022.

With the further expansion of China's display panel production capacity, the technological and regional patterns will also usher in changes.

In an interview with a reporter from China Electronics News, Dr. Ma Beibei of CCID Think Tank Institute of Integrated Circuits believes that: From the perspective of technology, the global display industry will maintain a long-term parallel development of multiple technologies to promote and complement each other. As far as TFT-LCD is concerned, the industry has entered a mature stage, but with a huge industrial foundation, a systematic supply chain system, continuously optimized performance and declining costs, it still has strong innovation vitality, and it will also adopt Mini LED backlighting. Technology, BD Cell technology, oxide backplane technology, etc. continue to improve display performance. From the perspective of the regional structure, the industrial layout of "three countries and four places" will continue, but the development priorities of various countries and regions may change: First, Japan will continue to maintain its advantages in the upstream materials and equipment fields for a long time; 2. Although South Korea has recently slowed its pace of exiting TFT-LCD, in the long run, it will focus more on the development of OLED and other technologies; my country's Taiwan region is working hard to promote Micro-LED technology while continuing to maintain the existing production capacity of TFT-LCD Thirdly, my country's mainland is expected to maintain its top position in global panel shipments for a long time in the future. At the same time, it will continue to make efforts in technological innovation and industrial chain construction.